Best Part chords

How to play Best Part

Play Best Part with Dmaj7, Am7, Gmaj7 and Bbmaj7, using standard tuning and no capo. The chart gives you a four-bar harmony loop at 75 BPM. Each box lasts four quarter-note beats. Begin with one quiet attack per box so you can hear the colour of each chord before adding a busier accompaniment.

Read the seventh chords carefully

The small differences in these symbols matter. Dmaj7 contains D, F#, A and C#; D7 would replace C# with C. Am7 contains A, C, E and G. Gmaj7 contains G, B, D and F#, and Bbmaj7 contains Bb, D, F and A. Sound the notes slowly once, then listen to the whole chord. The seventh is part of the harmony, rather than an optional decoration to remove whenever a grip feels unfamiliar.

You can hear the change from C# in Dmaj7 to C natural in Am7. Both Am7 and Bbmaj7 contain notes outside the D major scale. Keep those symbols as written. Replacing everything with chords from one major scale would erase precisely the changes this loop lets you practise.

Use the fingerings shown on this page

Read fret strings from low E to high E, with x meaning a string you leave silent. Dmaj7 is x-x-0-2-2-2. A small barre across the top three strings can work, but keep the open fourth string clear. Am7 is x-0-2-0-1-0. Release the little barre before building that open shape; trying to slide the whole hand across can accidentally mute the open third string.

Our Gmaj7 diagram is 3-x-0-0-0-2. It leaves the fifth string silent and places the major seventh, F#, on the first string. Bbmaj7 is x-1-3-2-3-1. Check the third string separately: its second-fret A is easy to lose underneath a flattened neighbouring finger. Use only enough pressure for a clean note, then relax between attempts.

Practise the return to Dmaj7

The end of the loop deserves its own exercise. Hold Bbmaj7 for four counts, move to Dmaj7 on the next count one, and stop. Repeat that pair before running all four chords. You are moving from a first-position grip with several fretted strings to a compact shape over an open D bass. Prepare the new shape slightly above the strings rather than dragging every finger through the change.

Once each change lands reliably, loop the full line. Let your thumb or pick reach the lowest sounding string of the current grip, then add a gentle upper-string response. This is a practice accompaniment you can vary; the page does not transcribe the recording’s individual plucked notes or percussive details. Leave enough space to hear the seventh of each chord.

Change key with the whole loop

Use the transpose control to move all four symbols together, and reset before comparing fingerings with this explanation. Moving only Bbmaj7 because it feels difficult would change the progression. A capo also raises every sounding note: putting one on fret 2 while retaining these shapes produces an E-centred version rather than the D-centred version shown here.

The key, tuning, meter, tempo and chord set were checked against Yousician’s Best Part lesson. The grip checks and practice exercises above refer to this page’s diagrams.